The players scheduled to hit the market next fall can draw an important lesson from this group: Don’t get caught in the "Dead Zone."

If you’re traded during the season, as Matt Garza was last winter, then your team can’t extend a qualifying offer, and you avoid draft-pick purgatory. If you have a great season, as Choo did, then you shift out of the Dead Zone.

But if you are a good veteran who has a solid season -- but not a great season -- well, then you might get stuck.